Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction SE01 EP01 - "The Apparition/The Electric Chair/On the Road/Number One with a Bullet/Dream House"

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction was a cult classic, portraying various stories, some seemingly supernatural in nature, with the idea that some are purely made up for the show, while others are based on real-life events. At the end of the show, we discover which were true, and which were false. This show lasted from 1997 to 2002, and has long been a favorite of mine, despite the low quality nature of the production.

Episode Name: The Apparition/The Electric Chair/On the Road/Number One with a Bullet/Dream House
Original Airdate: May 25, 1997

Hosted by James Brolin, we jump quickly into the stories after an introduction to the idea of the show. Each episode have five short stories, and I'll review each one briefly. While I will not state at the end which stories are true or false, I will post what I thought about each story, and then my score at the end of the episode, to see how well I did.

1) The Apparition

Mona Watson is a married woman, who recently came out of the psychiatric hospital due to a mental breakdown. Now, she keeps imaging she is seeing a ghostly woman figure in the upstairs hallway mirror of her and her husbands' home. While she is consistently scared of the mirror, Mona keeps it up so she can face her fears. One night, when her husband is stuck in town due to a terrible storm, a man breaks into Mona's house, with either the intent to kill or rape her. Upon a struggle in the hallway, though, the man too sees the figure in the mirror, and flees the house. Since then, Mona's never had a single problem with the mirror.

As Brolin says in his typical corny manner (albeit extraordinarily fun), is this story true, or is it all smoke and mirrors? My rating for this story was "False."

This was a suspenseful story, and everything worked well together. Definitely a fine start to this series.

Rating for story: Above Average


2) The Electric Chair

Raymond is, according to his lawyer, an innocent man caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Worse, he was identified by two eye witnesses as the perpetrator of a heinous crime. At the time of his date with death, though, the electric chair fails twice. The following day, the man who truly committed the crime was caught, and Raymond is freed at the end.

The story struck me as realistic enough to warrant a possibility of it happening, and as such, I rated this "True."

This story was by no means bad, but it lacked the punch the first story had, I feel. As such, I find it an average segment.

Rating for story: Average


3) On the Road

Vicky is a rather popular singer, and her husband and daughter equate her booking agents. One day, both Cal and Molly, the husband and daughter respectively, received a call to meet up with Vicky at an old restaurant where she and Cal had their first date. While the place is dilapidated oddly, the memories aren't, and Cal and his daughter take a sentimental trip down memory lane. While Molly finds an earring that looks much like her mother's, Cal received a phone call, telling him that his wife had died in a plane accident ten hours earlier, long before both he and his daughter got calls to meet her at the restaurant.

I may have been stabbing in the dark, but while on the surface, this story is ludicrous, I jotted down that I felt it was "True."

In many ways like the previous story, I felt while this story was well-done, the overly sentimental nature took away from the creepy aura I feel the situation should have contained. Overall, an average story.

Rating for story: Average


4) Number One with a Bullet

On Valentine's Day, 1991, Sharon leaves work early to meet with her husband John, a police officer. When she gets home, however, she discovers John cheating on her with another officer. The situation escalates, and Sharon is killed. Sharon's employee, who is also good friends with her, attempts to take revenge by shooting him, but she missed, and the bullet lodges into a tree.

Five years later, John, who is now married to his lover, decides to cut down the said tree. The chainsaw makes contact with the bullet shot into the tree years back, and he is shot dead.

While realistic, I rated this story "False."

This was a very solid story, and deeply enjoyable in nature. The karma is beautiful, and overall, it's well-done.

Rating for story: Above Average


5) Dream House

Alicia and Daniel are a young, recently married couple, who are on the hunt for a starter house. Making this process more difficult, Alicia has recently been dreaming of the perfect house, which makes her view all other choices as sub-par. After this dream occurs a few more times, the amazing happens and they drive near a house that is an exact replica of the house Alicia dreamed of. It's also on the market. Despite their belief that the bid they put in would never be accepted, as the house is clearly out of their price range, another amazing thing happens. The bid is accepted due to the belief by the owner that the house is haunted, and upon meeting the owner of the house, the owner discovers that Alicia is the one haunting her home.

While the idea of ghostly strong-arming people out of their homes to make for an easier purchase amuses me, I rated this story "False."

This story, while lacking any real chills, is quite well-done. This is one I remember from my childhood also, and such, the dream-like aura mixed with my own nostalgia has me rating this one highly.

Rating for story: Above Average


All of the stories here are at least average, and three of them are above average. The host, Brolin, does a fine job of presenting and closing each story. As a whole, this episode is a solid opening to the series, and contains two classics, being the fourth and fifth story.

Oh, and how did I do?

At the end of the episode, James Brolin went over each story, and let us know which were true or false.

Bad luck on my part - I got all five wrong.

For episode: 0/5
Overall (for Series): 0/5


Rating: Above Average


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